Inspiring

Answered

InDesign 2026: Drop Shadows graphical glitch

Forum|Forum|9 months ago
November 4, 2025
56 replies
2704 views

After the most recent update I had to create a document using assets from older indesign files that previously never gave any issues. Now the dropshadows from multiple (different objects) move all over the place (away from the object as if theres a fixed lightsource) when I move these objects. When I turn off the dropshadow of the object, move the object and then turn the shadow back on it will have the shadow in it's correct position. When I move the object around multiple times it will start glitching the entire page until I move my cursor over it again. When I change the path of the object the displaced shadow will snap back into it's correct position, making me think this is a graphical display issue.

In the example below you can see how the dropshadows moved. (left one moved up when moving the object down and to the left. Right one stayed closer to it's original position but offset, middle is the original position before copying and moving).

i'm working on a Macbook Pro m2MAx Sequoia Version 15.6.

Bug

Correct answer Abhishek Rao

Hi @Trancilian and everyone following this thread,

Thanks again for your patience while the team investigated this issue. I have a positive update to share.

The product team has confirmed that the fix for this drop shadow issue is now available in the latest InDesign 21.5 PreRelease build. If you have access to the PreRelease program, could you please install the latest 21.5 build and let us know if the issue is resolved on your end?

The fix will also be included in an upcoming public release, so if you don't have access to the PreRelease build, you'll receive it shortly.

If you'd like to test the fix early, you can enroll in the InDesign PreRelease program using the links below:

Join the InDesign PreRelease program:
https://www.adobeprerelease.com/beta/C6DFA254-C40C-4EEB-8F6D-F4AEDA2E6171

Enrollment instructions:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/invitation-to-indesign-prerelease/td-p/12371924

If you're able to test the PreRelease build, we'd really appreciate hearing whether it resolves the issue for you.

Thank you all for your continued support and feedback throughout the investigation.

Abhishek

T

TrancilianAuthor

Inspiring

@Abhishek Rao any updates? It has been 8! months and it is still broken, working with shadows is an absolute nightmare. This is not a small bug that you only rarely encounter, this is an essential feature that’s completely broken. This should have been patched within days, if Adobe took their software and customers seriously!

Abhishek Rao

Correct answer

Community Manager

Hi @Trancilian and everyone following this thread,

Thanks again for your patience while the team investigated this issue. I have a positive update to share.

The product team has confirmed that the fix for this drop shadow issue is now available in the latest InDesign 21.5 PreRelease build. If you have access to the PreRelease program, could you please install the latest 21.5 build and let us know if the issue is resolved on your end?

The fix will also be included in an upcoming public release, so if you don't have access to the PreRelease build, you'll receive it shortly.

If you'd like to test the fix early, you can enroll in the InDesign PreRelease program using the links below:

Join the InDesign PreRelease program:
https://www.adobeprerelease.com/beta/C6DFA254-C40C-4EEB-8F6D-F4AEDA2E6171

Enrollment instructions:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/invitation-to-indesign-prerelease/td-p/12371924

If you're able to test the PreRelease build, we'd really appreciate hearing whether it resolves the issue for you.

Thank you all for your continued support and feedback throughout the investigation.

Abhishek

T

TrancilianAuthor

Inspiring

Thank you for the update, I installed the pre-release version and it seems that the bug has indeed been fixed. Much appreciated!

Pierre+Lippuner

Participant

What’s the status here?

Me and a colleague have been experiencing the onscreen “when moving Objects with drop shadows around, the shadows travel” for some months now. Both of us are on InDesign 21.4.1 and the problem persists. Only workaround is to change something on the affected objects like scale or rotation and back.

We both work on Max OSX, I have an M4 and my colleague has an M1 MAX.

Pjot

Participant

yep - bug still persists on 21.3 x64 windows

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

I tested this glitch file, and yes, the drop shadows behave in a buggy way.

If I set rotation to 0, the problem goes away.

I exported to IDML and opened that IDML as a new INDD and the same bugginess persisted.

But, I used Layout > Move Pages to a fresh document, and in the fresh document, the bugginess cleared up and the Drop Shadows moved correctly with the object, even though they were rotated.

Fixable, but I am not sure what conclusion to draw here.

Mike Witherell

K

kloughlin

Participant

Thank goodness for this thread because I thought I was losing my mind! Converting Spanish text into English and the Spanish shadow stays behind -- seen in presentation and all modes. I exported it to PDF and it appeared OK, but this is a very odd bug that Adobe needs to fix ASAP. Impossible to design around this...

A

A Nova

Known Participant

For the past few months, I’ve been able to work around this issue, but it has now reached a ridiculous point. When exporting PNG files in Adobe InDesign, the drop shadows shift position during export. The shadows appear correctly within InDesign, but once the PNG is exported, the shadows are visibly displaced from their original placement. I am currently using Adobe InDesign version 21.3

I created a new forum specifically addressing the exporting issue some of us have been experiencing recently - the issue seems to be getting worse.

Here’s an example:

Inside Indesign, the shadows are where they’re supposed to be.

Flattened .png files placed as assets in Animate. The shadows moved.

I’ve gone back into InDesign multiple times to correct the shadow placement and re-export the files, but the shadows continue to export incorrectly, which has become a major issue in my workflow.

I’ve been dealing with this bug daily for months, often having to resize assets in InDesign just to temporarily work around the problem. I’m hoping to bring more attention to this issue so it can hopefully be investigated and resolved.

Thank you - hopefully Adobe fixes this soon. It’s been months and I see this as a pretty big issue and everyone in my office is having this problem.

parksite_karl

Participant

This problem is not fixed yet. Whenever I move an item, I have to turn off the drop shadow and then turn it back on. Extremely frustrating.

T

turner111

Inspiring

Just found this thread due to shadows moving on -some- grouped objects within the document… I don’t know what’s causing it only with certain objects. Never seen anything like this before - I thought it might have been a new feature.

Needs a fix asap.

T

TrancilianAuthor

Inspiring

It happens to objects that are rotated and have drop shadows. If you remove the rotation it will stop glitching. They really need to fix this asap

T

TrancilianAuthor

Inspiring

Here's a short video showing the 1-click workaround that I use. If you need to reposition an object a lot I recommend adding the shadows using illustrator or photoshop and importing that into InDesign. Not great and far from a fix, but better than jumpy shadows.

paulhalupka

Participant

Who the heck marked this as answered? This is nothing but workarounds, Adobe please fix this thing. Unbelievable! It’s like one of the oldest features in the suite, to have drop shadows. Divert some of the AI spending that will destroy our careers and make it so humans can use their actual fricking tools that they pay for.

M

MilanSperka

Participating Frequently

Every update brings its lot of new bugs. I would be laughing if this wasn’t the tool i use TO MAKE A LIVING. Adobe is bloated by greed.

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